Saturday, March 01, 2014

I DIDN'T EXPECT THIS: RUSSELL KIRK IS A POOR SCHOLAR

In The Conservative Constitution, Russell Kirk states the following:
Burke's speeches and pamphlets were read by the men of 1776 and the men of 1787 - and studied with yet closer attention from 1790 to 1815, and later.  In divers ways - some obvious, some subtle - Burke's rhetoric, Burke's politics, and Burke's constitutional principles were woven, generation after generation, into American modes of thought and American understanding of constitutional law. (p.x)
I searched Founders Online for "Edmund Burke" and only found two substantive mentions of Burke. One  was in a footnote to this letter
From Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, 18 January 1800
To Joseph Priestley

Philadelphia Jan. 18. 1800
FOOTNOTE: In 1791 TJ praised Priestley’s rebuttal of Edmund Burke (DNB; Malone, Jefferson 3:448–51; Vol. 7:288; Vol. 20:410, 712n; Vol. 28:24, 67, 102; Vol. 29:284).
and the other is this mention:
From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 1 May 1791
I send you herewith a Copy of Priestley’s answer to Burke which has been reprinted here. You will see by a note page 56 how your idea of limiting the right to bind posterity is germinating under the extravagant doctrines of Burke on that subject.

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